In France ,it was obviously made to capitalize on the tremendous commercial (and critical ) success of "Peau D'Ane " (Donkey Skin )starring Catherine Deneuve released the precedent year; perhaps this juxtaposition is unfair:it must be admitted that Michel Boisrond's film suffers in this comparison:it's a far cry from highly talented Jacques Demy 's elegance, finesse and sense of wonder ; by the same token ,Francis Lai's score cannot match Michel Legrand 's magical talent.
That said, Michel Boisrond,a rather mediocre director ,if he did not produce an all time classic such as "Peau d 'Ane ",one must recognize that his take on Perrault is not devoid of qualities: the song over the cast and credits , then heard again sung by Poucet and his bros, has fine lyrics superbly imitating the French folk songs of yore ; Marie Laforêt is beautiful , a queen to her fingertips ;larger-than-life Jean-Pierre Marielle is ideally cast as the ogre ,even though he has a tendency to overact .
The Perrault fairytale , like "Bluebird " which was inspired by Joan of Ark's companion ,serial killer Gilles De Rais , is not far from reality ; under the reign of the Sun King , there were famine times and parents would sometimes abandon their children :Saint Vincent De Paul taking in babies in the churches, it was not legend .
But the fairytale was too short to transfer it into a full length feature film ;hence the necessity to invent another plot from start to finish : the royal story is not Perrault's even though the butterfly and the princess' sickness seem to have been borrowed from "peau d'âne " ( similarities with the ring and the prince's illness) ; nevertheless Jean -Luc Bidault and Marie Laforêt (whose beauty has no cause to be jealous of Deneuve's )make a credible fairytale royal couple with their daughter ,whom they poison from protection . The settings in the castle where the young girl is wrapped up in cotton wool and those of the ogre 's den , with its bloody walls make a starking welcome contrast.
A note about Disney : his take on Perrault ("Sleeping Beauty" ) scared me to death when I watched it when I was a child ; if Maleficent is "politically correct" ,then give me more!
